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Being in a band you have a huge responsibility for things way out of your control. What if you're the Replacements and suddenly you hear the Goo Goo Dolls? Do you weep as they sell ten million records with a watered down version of your style? Can you sue? Probably not. Only Tom Waits can do that.

Sonic Youth are responsible for plenty of musicians picking up instruments. Some were inspired by the band's freeform sprawl while others figured if those tone-deaf mutants could pull it off, surely other tone-deaf mutants could. But it's never as easy as it seems. You either have to know someone or go out on the road and hustle your butt. Either way, you have to get out of bed and work less hard at your day job.

Here are ten bands who would either not exist or sound radically different without Sonic Youth to have shown them the way.

10) Yeah Yeah Yeahs: Sure, Karen O sounds more like a PJ Harvey clone but the band's raw dynamic and NYC pedigree smack of the kind of hipster cred that Sonic Youth once doled out on a very careful basis. Where do they stand on these guys? Who knows? They're probably home working on the attic.

9) Liars: Brooklyn hipsters who record either great works that the world will one day catch up with or complete crap that deserve the awful reviews they sometimes get. Any band this polarizing has to have something going for it.

8) Pussy Galore: Featuring their old drummer Bob Bert and guitarist Julia Cafritz who would go to be in Free Kitten with Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon, Pussy Galore were always more an art project than a rock n' roll band and almost an alter-ego to SY's Id. Or something like that. Listen, I nearly flunked psychology because I was too busy listening to crappy records.

7) Blonde Redhead: Used to kind of like these folks when they were making records regularly. Abrasive but poppy and obviously trying to replicate some sort of "subway" sound that reflected their city environs. Probably recorded in an old barn or something just to be contrary.

6) Guv'ner: One of those bands I don't know if I've ever really heard. I know I've heard them but I can't remember much about the experience except everyone seemed to think they sounded like Sonic Youth, which always made me wonder why people didn't just put on Sonic Youth.

5) Royal Trux: Neil Hagerty was in Pussy Galore with former Sonic Youth drummer Bob Bert and Royal Trux's first bunch of records were just about unlistenable. As someone who shelled out real money for their double album Twin Infinitives on the advice of a friend, I speak from experience when I say they did improve and get better later on.

4) Thinking Fellers Union Local #282: Yet another band that gives me amnesia except that everyone who liked Sonic Youth seemed to think these guys were onto something. I just love the completely uncatchy band name. Yeah, kids wanna write that on their notebook.

3) Boss Hogg: By putting their attractive female leader on the cover without any clothes, they were guaranteed to sell records to people who usually just bought calendars with women on farm equipment. In the six degrees of separation, these folks also did business with Sonic Youth in a roundabout way, since Pussy Galore begat them and YOU draw the family tree. I'm too confused.

2) Yo La Tengo: These guys would've existed without Sonic Youth since they were way big Velvet Underground fans and rock critics and music geeks long before Sonic Youth made it the right thing to be. They might've carried less feedback. They might not have gotten as much attention. Or maybe they would've gotten more. Did they live in SY's shadow? Or were they part of a movement? They lived across the river in Hoboken, NJ, which is now completely ruined just like the Lower East Side. They probably meet up at softball games and Memorial Day picnics to discuss the decline.

1) Pavement: Pavement don't really sound like Sonic Youth but they have the same "deconstructive" tendencies, which goes to show I attended grad school one too many times myself. Thankfully, with the economy in the toilet, none of this stuff matters as much as "Can you swing a hammer?" which unfortunately I cannot. So instead I will hock my rare Pavement 10-inch and hope there are still affluent indie-rock fans with money who still care.

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